


Observation.

by FeliciaAmelloides



Series: A Oneshot a Day... [9]
Category: nonfandom
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Space, Angst, My Own AU, stranded in space, weird au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-28 09:39:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13901325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeliciaAmelloides/pseuds/FeliciaAmelloides
Summary: Having arrived at a metal container in orbit of a planet filled with primitive life forms, two castaways stop to look at this strange new planet before they try to find a way back home.





	Observation.

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wanted this prompt to be about actual people (such as Tim Peake) when I wrote it, but then I though that a futuristic scenario about the International Space Station becoming some sort of holiday destination would be fun.
> 
> So I made it about castaway aliens internal monologuing about how stupid humanity is.
> 
> All names are rough translations of their home language into English, and the same applies to anything they say. I like this AU a lot, and it does have a full story since it's something I planned out several years ago in the hopes of writing it.
> 
> TW for mention of severe injury (no blood or graphic descriptions, just a tiny mention in one sentence), implied death.

Zena had never quite understood why humans loved these things so much. Large, clunky bits of metal filled with useless objects thrown into their own planet's orbit. And to do what? Observe? It didn't seem very interesting, particularly when they could have spent all of that observation time harvesting the solar energy from the rock crystals on their satellite's crater-filled surface to create a super-generated spacecraft that could travel to the next galaxy in under three human hours. And that was a slow spacecraft!

She was so glad that her planet wasn't full of primitive life forms such as those.

Beside her, Myzana tapped on the cool glass of the 'space station'- such an imaginative name- observation glass, her translucent fingers leaving tiny trails of pale green dust wherever she touched. She seemed more enthralled at the sight before her than Zena, but then again, she had never been off-planet before a few months ago, and this was her first time seeing anything like Earth.

Zena found herself drawn to the curious look in the princess' eyes as she gazed upon the blue and green planet just outside of the station. They were so bright and vivid, nothing like the dull, lifeless states of their species' lower ranks.

Nothing like her own.

As a Rank 16 from birth, Zena was the lowest of the low. She had only managed to work up way up to Rank 14 through endless gruelling hours of intergalactic travel and complex technical work, and even then all of the born 14s hated her for being lower than them. She found herself glaring at Myzana, a pang of jealousy stirring in her gut. She didn't know how lucky she was, to be born as a Rank 0. Immediately indoctrinated into the royal family; famous across the entire species as an idol and a champion; and the future ruler of their star system.

How humans managed to survive believing that they were the only species in their entire solar system and forming many tiny kingdoms who constantly tore each other apart was a complete mystery to Zena.

"Do you... think that they like seeing this? Being far enough away from their planet to see it almost in its entirety, but close enough to see the artificial lights of its larger settlements when it lies in the shadow of their star?" Myzana whispered, her voice much more quiet and subdued than usual. Awestruck.

Zena nodded her head slightly in response when she caught those incredible eyes turning to face her. As a born Rank 16, she had no vocal chords. Simple body language and the use of written form if they were lucky enough to be able to learn it were their only forms of communication. She believed that the humans on this planet were stupid enough to be left just as awestruck by their own planet as Myzana was by this one. However, she knew that her response would probably be interpreted differently by the princess, always too naive to understand such things.

"I wish that we hadn't been stranded when we found this place. I would have asked father to remove the pests and claim it for us. It would have made such a nice holiday home... My Zarnethians would have loved it." She spoke in a wistful tone, twirling a few strands of hair between her fingers with expert dexterity, blending pink and black together until they were an indistinguishable blur. Her antennae twitched with a faint sadness.

As Zena watched her, she realised that Myzana wasn't quite so naive. Maybe she hadn't been fascinated by the humans, but by the planet's potential to be a harvesting point for rare minerals such as copper and iron. Her Zarnethians would have enjoyed the oceans too, and the extraordinary amount of carbon in the atmosphere made it the perfect place to get some fresh air.

She brushed the part of her bangs that always got into her eyes away and reached towards the glass, finding that she could see the Earth through her hand. As a Rank 16, she was almost completely transparent from below her neck, a strange sight for those who weren't used to seeing it, meaning that she constantly wore a full body silver-grey jumpsuit to stop people from knocking into her by mistake. It didn't help at all that one of her arms had been blown off in their initial landing on some outlying planet of the Andromeda galaxy. Sometimes Myzana would forget that the arm was gone, just believing it to be invisible in the light.

All Zena hoped was that they would find something to make a communication device out of, no matter how primitive the human technology was. All they needed was some of those rock crystals from the Earth's satellite (was it called Moon perhaps? Maybe Pigeon?) as well as a touch of radium and several pieces of obsidian, and they could make one. Or maybe they could do it from iron instead- it was a good enough material.

Looking at Myzana, who was now looking back with a haughty sort of vigour in her eyes, Zena knew that it was time to get started. They had no more time left for observing. That was the humans' mistake. It was time for action.

**Author's Note:**

> As I said in the start notes, this is an excerpt from a novel idea that I had a few years ago. I never gave the species that Zena and Myzana are from a name, so I kept it ambiguous. The rank system and the way that it worked with their species as a sort of hierarchy as well as their uniform control over their entire solar system was already worked out.
> 
> However, Zena lost both arms in the original story. I remembered that after writing out a line about her having arms, so I changed it to her only losing one because I didn't want to rewrite it.
> 
> Sorry if the names and things are weird (I apologise too much because I'm sort of a self deprecating author)- Myzana originally had a different name and I think Zena was either short for something else or had an 'X' in it somewhere, but I changed them to make it less complex (difficult names make stories more annoying to read, I've found)
> 
> Okay, I'll shut up now. See you soon, and thank you for leaving kudos! Getting 11 in such a short space of time is an accomplishment for me, especially since I wasn't expecting to get any on this.
> 
> Prompt- People on the ISS looking out at Earth.
> 
> Original Number- 317.


End file.
